Gu Zihao (; born 13 March 1998) is a Chinese professional go player. Gu Zihao was born in

Xiantao Xiantao () is a sub-prefecture-level city in the east of Hubei province, China. Located at the Jianghan Plain in the middle of Hubei province and spanning 112°55' – 113°49' east longitude and 30°04' – 30°32' north latitude, Xiantao City c ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

in 1998. He began to play go when he was 6 years old. To further study go, he moved to

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

at age 9, and then to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

at age 11. He earned professional 1 dan rank in 2010, when he was 12. He began participating in the Chinese A League in 2012. In 2015, he won China's

National Go Individual The Chinese Go Championship is a Go competition which determines the national champion of China. Outline The Chinese Go Championship is held with the Swiss system A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fi ...

tournament, and the Limin Cup, an under-20 international tournament. He won an international title at the Samsung Cup in 2017, defeating

Tang Weixing Tang Weixing (; born 15 January 1993) is a Chinese professional go player. He has won three international titles, with two championships in the Samsung Cup (2013, 2019) and one in the Ing Cup (2016). Early life Tang Weixing was born in Guiya ...

in the finals. Gu, who was 5 dan at the time, was promoted to 9 dan for the victory. He won two domestic competitions in 2018, the

Weifu Fangkai Cup The Weifu Fangkai Cup (), also sometimes known as the Qiwang (not to be confused with the defunct Qiwang), is a Go competition in China. Outline The tournament is sponsored by the Wuxi people government. The tournament began in 2003. Past winner ...

and the

Ahan Tongshan Cup The Ahan Tongshan Cup () is a Chinese Go competition. Outline The Ahan Tongshan Cup is a Go tournament played with fast time controls: Each player has 30 seconds per move, along with 10 one-minute periods of extra thinking time. The format is sin ...

, as well as the

China-Japan Agon Cup The China-Japan Agon Cup is a Go competition. Outline The China-Japan Agon Cup is a single-game match held each year between the winner of the Agon Kiriyama Cup in Japan and the Ahan Tongshan Cup in China. It is sponsored by Agon Shu. As of 2021 ...

playoff. In January 2020, while visiting family in his hometown Xiantao, he fell under the

COVID-19 lockdown in Hubei On 23 January 2020, the State Council of the People's Republic of China, central government of China imposed a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei in an effort to quarantine the center of COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, an outbreak of COVID- ...

; he continued to compete remotely while staying there until April. He won the

CCTV Cup The CCTV Cup is a Chinese Go competition. Outline The CCTV Cup is the longest running fast game tournament in China and the sponsor is the Chinese CCTV station. The winner and the runner-up qualify for the Asian TV Cup, where they compete against ...

later that year, followed by several championships in 2021: the Tianyuan, the Ahan Tongshan Cup and China–Japan playoff, and the Longxing. Gu is sometimes nicknamed ''èbà'' 'evil tyrant' (), derived from a username which he used for playing go online, ''Yìnchéng zhī bà'' '

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

tyrant' (). He originally chose the username because he was a fan of the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...

in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Titles

International: * Limin Cup 2015 (under-20 tournament) * Samsung Cup 2017 *

2018 and 2021 Chinese: *

2015 *

2018 *

2018 and 2021 *

2020 * Tianyuan 2021 * Longxing 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Zihao 1998 births Living people Chinese Go players Sportspeople from Hubei